Isn't selling gold.... illegal ?

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Publication par Murrdurr

As someone who is in the know about this because I used to do it with the currency and accounts in EQ is that there are actual sites that are safe to use to buy gold, however those are the sites that do not advertise spam in-game and on other sites forums, its a type of site you find out by word of mouth. Some people might not know of certain e-bay like sites just for MMOs where just single people farm up mass amounts of gold and just sells it for a little side profit. Theres plenty of ways to buy gold without worrying about getting hacked later on but the average joe would just type in "buy wow gold" in google and fall to some shady site that laters steals their info. But I will also admit its just not worth it in WoW, gold is just too easy to come across and unlike other MMOs its not that important to have alot of gold.

Publication par ChairmanKaga

Wrong. They don't create gold by hacking or exploiting the game.

Are you kidding?

There is endless QQ on the Blizz forums about hacked accounts. Now just who do you think is hacking those accounts, and why?

There's an old urban legend where Willie Sutton said he robbed banks "because that's where the money is". Look at any gold selling site (if you dare) and see how much real American cash idiots will drop for the convenience. Then ask yourself, if I'm the gold seller, why spend all that time farming when legit players have already done it for me? Go where the money is.

Every hacked account is one less dollar they have to pay their Chinese slave labor. It's all about their bottom line. This, much like drug running, is a big-money underground business, and they choose the path of least resistance for their supply chain.

So if you buy gold, keep in mind the sort of industry you're funding.

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Publication par shakakoz

Alright...I'm confused...I understand that we can make a business for practically anything for america...and there are SOOOOO many gold sites these days...But isn't selling gold illegal ? Can't the gold site owners be arrested / sued for having such a business?

It's not illegal. You aren't breaking any laws, just Blizzards EULA. So Blizzard can ban you, but they can't call the cops after you. Selling virtual goods is perfectly legal. I challenge anyone to show me a law that says otherwise.

And yes, Blizzard claims property of all virtual goods within the game, but that is just what it is - a claim. As to whether selling gold constitutes "selling stolen goods", the "goods" are under Blizzards control at all times. That is to say, they can go and create or delete stuff at any time, so it isn't really stolen if it didn't go anywhere or if Blizzard still has control over it.

Don't buy gold - it is easy to make nowadays.

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Publication par Karrie

There is endless QQ on the Blizz forums about hacked accounts.
Except those accounts haven't been hacked. Clicking on suspicious links and entering your account information on a random site != being hacked. Stupid people deserve to be exploited.
But how do you know the gold people buy comes from those 'hacked' accounts? You don't. For all you know, that gold could come from normal players who happen to have too much gold and sell it to pay for their subscription. Some gold sellers actually act as middlemen for such people: They buy gold and resell it with a profit. No 'hacking' involved.

Publication par Adamsm

Publication par Monday

Clicking on suspicious links and entering your account information on a random site != being hacked.

On the contrary, you may believe it is a Blizzard site. And then you are being hacked.

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Publication par pezz

Stupid people deserve to be exploited.

Somewhere, Nietzsche smiled.

On topic: Blizzard definitely owns everything in-game, and selling something you have no right to sell is definitely illegal, at least in the US.

The catch, as I said, is that to be prosecuted under US law when you don't live there and aren't a citizen there requires the government presiding over the offender in question to be forthright and forthcoming in expediting the same. As a rule of thumb, this is more trouble than it's worth for gold selling in WoW.

Publication par ChairmanKaga

On topic: Blizzard definitely owns everything in-game, and selling something you have no right to sell is definitely illegal, at least in the US.

That implies that gold (and other virtual items) meet the legal definition of "something".

This is why MDY v. Blizzard keeps riding the appeals court merry-go-round, and why Blizzard had to take the rather novel route of a DMCA/copyright claim. Most law that would apply to physical items (like theft) is not prepared to handle the virtual world.

Gold sellers are not doing anything criminally actionable under most sane interpretations of law.

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Publication par Pwntiff

It would be game-breaking. One of the things I like is the mostly free market. There's enough inflation through the course of the game's progression, without the forced inflation of "legit" gold sales.

Publication par Xiamaru

I am 100 % certain that people who honestly believe only "stupid players" gets hacked, have never tried getting hacked themselves.

I know someone who got hacked, who possess several anti-spyware/virus programs, never uses the internet browser for anything but flash games like Kongregate, (not even Wowhead O_o), who still got hacked. Likewise, couple of weeks ago, my brother got hacked too, and curiously, he was in posssession of an Authenticator.

Now, as much as I love the line "ONLI SDUPID PPL GET HAXXED, HAHA NooB" people like to throw around, the sheer stupidity of those comments pretty much invalidate anything else you have to say, how right it might otherwise have sounded. But hey, if you really want to be threated like an idiot, go ahead and presume the worst.

In the end, I don't think Blizzard would file lawsuits of any kind to all who deals with these things, buy or sell. It's like internet Piracy. Sony files a few, maybe 100.000 cases, were only maybe 30.000 are actually responded to. They then leave the rest alone, and take the other cases through court. They don't do this to make up for the loss they recieved. They do it only to make an example - to inspire a certain amount of "fear" in the populace of those sites, in order to make them stop with what they are doing.

Now a ban, that's a whole other story. I have once gotten a ban scheduled to be 6 months long, because of "Dubious contact with Gold Sellers". This dubious contact being me writing a reply to someone asking if I wanted to buy gold: "Of course, I'd LOVE to pay you for your service of allowing me to perma-ban your annoying spam-bot" (which I have macro'd on all character for easy reply, regardless of where I am, and regardless of the otherwise obvious fact that they probably wont even see the message), followed by a "report spam" click.

Blizzard can, and will, ban you. They need but the slightest idea you might, possibly, in the near future, or maybe even in the past, have had illegal contact with gold sellers. The banners mood most likely determines how easily your account is banned. Likewise for removing the ban - it may or may not require convincing of the employee you get in contact with. Some of them don't even ask questions, and simply unban your account. Others outright refuse, and would gladly spend half an hour asking questions, trying to dig up a confession that you did something you weren't allowed to do. As already stated, our nice ToA pretty much allows Blizzard to Permaban all accounts on all servers without warning, and we wouldn't be able to do #$%^ about it. Granted, that's very bad for business, which is why they don't even ban all accounts who are only "suspected" of gold selling.

I gotta say, I'm glad Blizzard takes interest in us. Blizzard really couldn't care less about this whole gold selling thing. Why? At best, it allows them to charge us a few months more from people farming for gold in order to get some epic mount of equally, but let's be honest here - Those people that care about that, would have stayed anyway. I actually believe Blizzard is only maintaining ADDITIONAL accounts by having Gold Sellers plague the game. This means the only reason Blizzard even cares, if because it makes us, the players who truly care about the game, happy. I can't see it in any other way, and if someone else can, feel free to enlighten me. I just fail to see where Blizzard loses anything.

Isn't selling gold.... illegal ?

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